Meanwhile, Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she will travel to New York next week to protest the supposed injustice in person.

By now you’ve likely learned that on Thursday, a grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump for his role in a 2016 hush money payout to porn star Stormy Daniels and is expected to surrender to the Manhattan district attorney’s office next week to be arraigned. Given that both (1) no former US president in history has ever been charged with a crime and (2) Trump has spent his entire life evading any and all repercussions for his actions, this was obviously a massive and shocking turn of events. For his part, the ex-president, unsurprisingly, did not take the news very well, issuing a multi-paragraph tirade referencing Russia, George Soros, “Radical Left Democrats,” “Crooked Democrats,” witch hunts, and Joe Biden (he’s also blasted unhinged posts on Truth Social). But how‘s the news gone over with his children? Also not great!

Immediately following the news of the grand jury vote, Donald Trump Jr. posted a video response in which he claimed that the mere act of his father being held to the letter of the law was exponentially worse than anything some of history’s worst dictators ever did. “Let’s be clear, folks,” Trump’s namesake told his viewers. “This is like Communist-level shit. This is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot—it would make them blush. It’s so flagrant, it’s so crazed. When even like the radical leftists of The Washington Post are out there saying, ‘it’s not really based on fact, it’s not really based on the law, it’s not really based in reality, but it’s 100% based on politics’—when your enemies are saying that, it’s got to tell you everything you need to know about where we are as a country.”

Just as an aside, it’s not clear that The Washington Post has ever said the case against Trump is not “based on fact” or “based on the law.” Also, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, so we’re not sure that they’d look at Trump being indicted—for something he admitted to!—and be all “Whoa, whoa, this is a bit much.” Elsewhere, Junior has tweeted, “The ruling party is trying to jail the opposition leader like a third world dictatorship!” and “This isn’t just the radical left weaponizing the government to target their political enemies, this is them weaponizing the government to interfere in the 2024 election to stop Trump. The only solution is to shove it down their throats and put him back in the White House!!!”

Eric Trump has also been out on social media decrying the news. Among other things, he’s declared:

And:

He also told the Daily Mail that his father is being “ruthlessly” attacked because he “dared challenge the political elite. This is Exhibit A to the decline of American Law.”

On Friday, former first son-in-law Jared Kushner said: “As Americans, it’s very troubling to me to see the leader of the opposition party be indicted,” he said. “And I think that that shows obviously the fear that the Democrats have of Trump and the political strength that he has.”

More than 12 hours after the news broke, Ivanka Trump, who reportedly wants nothing to do with any of this, posted a restrained statement to Instagram Stories that read: “I love my father, and I love my country. Today, I am pained for both. I appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern.” Tiffany Trump does not appear to have issued a comment.

But what Trump lacks in full-throated defenses from his daughters he makes up for in cringeworthy rants from his supporters in the GOP. Elise Stefanik, who is said to be under consideration to be Trump’s 2024 running mate, has let people know, more than once, that she “stand[s] with Trump.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene—also on the short list as a potential VP pick—has opined that Stormy Daniels is too old for porn, and said that she plans to protest Trump’s indictment in New York.

And of course, Lindsey Graham, who will never leave Trump’s side, is extremely broken up about all this.

“If you got a pile of crap and you chop it up 34 times, it’s still a pile of crap,” the lawmaker from South Carolina said Thursday night. “It’s duplicitous charging. They’re trying to smear the guy…. This is literally legal voodoo.”

Nothing to see here, just a sitting member of Congress saying Trump should commit crimes on his way to being arraigned

TFW you think stealing a bottle of Tylenol is a worse crime than presidential candidates (allegedly) falsifying business records to cover up six-figure hush money deals